Comparison and Contrast

Indonesia and the United States have different approaches to deal with climate change. Indonesia, as a developing country, is using ‘human’ approach as it doesn’t have a good technology yet. In contrast, the United States, as a well developed country, has already had the technology and uses less ‘human’ approach.

According to Indonesian State Minister for the Environment (2007), Indonesia is dealing with climate change by placing a value on carbon emissions, which means that people or factories will have to pay when they pollute the environment. The government is hoping that people will start reducing their pollution to environment when they have to pay for it and this is hoped to be able to improve the environmental condition.

In a well developed country like the United States, the government tries to use technology to deal with climate change. According to the Greenpeace Global Warming Campaign (2007), the United States has been successful in reducing its reliance on fossil fuel (oil, gas, etc) and has started to use renewable energy sources. In the US now, nearly 80% of electricity can be produced by these renewable energy resources and it also has succeeded in reducing their carbon dioxide emission by 72%.

From the statistics, it can be observed that the US is seemed to be successful in its way of dealing with climate change. For Indonesia, as this policy is still new, the result is still a bit invisible and is expected to become visible in several years ahead.

References

"Dealing with Global Warming Without Nuclear Power." ENewsUSA. January 27, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from

http://enewsusa.blogspot.com/2007/01/dealing-with-global-warming-without.html

“Indonesia asks for technology transfers in dealing with climate change.” People’s Daily Online. December 1, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/6313157.html